The Secrets of the Journal
by TheOneInBetween
Summary: Alexis Deracy is a demigod. Yes, as in half god and half human. As she settles into the camp, she encounters and comes across many challenges, such as running away from a crazy entity and passing out on a canoe boat while going through a random flashback. The fun has just begun. (Note: This is originally written as a short story, but I'm planning on writing more.)
1. Part 1 - The Entity

I was just about to fall off the cliff when someone held on to my wrist. Right before turning around, my visions blurred and the morning sun shined on me. As I came to my conscious I saw a hand pulling my arm. The hand belonged to one of my siblings, Peyton. I looked around my surrounding and realized that I've been dreaming the whole time; it's because after opening my eyes, I was lying on my bed back in Camp Half-Blood. I moved my hands around to check the bed that I am lying in. Yup, it feels like a bed. Fortunately, it was real, because I can feel my bed sheets, which smelled like my mother's scented perfume. The pillow that's under my head also feels like the one on my bed in Camp Half-Blood too, because it's soft and squishy, just like how I remembered it when I took it from my mom's bedroom before coming to camp. I sighed in relief because my siblings were sleeping in their beds. That's another sign that this isn't some kind of illusion to throw me off guard. "LEXIS," I yelped and fell off my bed by the sudden call of my name.

"I thought you were never waking up!"

Thanks to the bunny headed slippers, my face didn't slam onto the floor. Someone grabbed my arm and helped me get back onto my feet.

"Sorry for scaring you… but um... glad that your bones aren't broken!"

"It's ok…" I laughed and then said, "…and yeah, it's not broken." I got up and ambled to my drawer. "Let me get ready for the today. I wouldn't want to miss breakfast!" I grabbed my Camp Half-Blood shirt along with a random pair of jeans, and walked into the bathroom to prepare myself for the day ahead.

When I got ready, Peyton, Gen, Lily and I headed towards the Dining Pavilion to eat breakfast. Chiron and Mr. D told us to try to not travel alone at any time just in case something happened - for example, like an attack or something uncalled for. After finishing our morning meal, Peyton and I went to canoeing class together. I like canoeing... I like the way that the boat floats so swiftly on the water, and the way that I can think without disturbance from others. That depends on what day it is though, because it's hard to tune things out sometimes. We got on one of the canoeing boats and started paddling with the oars.

At first, no one talked, but since Peyton couldn't stand the silence, she started to speak (something about someone having frog feet). I bring my eyes to look at her instead of the fishes that were swimming in the water. Out of nowhere, something popped in my head and I just blurted it out without thinking, "Do you know that termites eats wood faster when listening to metal music? It's from a video that I came across the other day." Peyton burst out laughing, and I joined in a couple of seconds later. When she stopped, she managed to make out a few words, "What on earth…?" I shrugged and simply let out a small laugh once more.

When we stopped for a small break, I reached into the small bag that I carried to the boat and took out my journal. Before letting my hand run loose to fill the pages with words- I paused and thought about what to write. I looked up, wanting to ask Peyton something, but seeing her throwing rocks into the water, I stopped. All of a sudden, I felt like doing the same. Maybe I just needed to look into the water for thinking inspirations. Water calms me down at times...and calming me down gets me thinking. I don't know why or how it works… but it just does. As the rocks hit the surface of the water, the water rippled. For some reason, I feel sleepy and my eyes start to close... A moment later though, I heard shouts. Peyton shook me before I could fall deeper into slumber. Then, she cried, "ALEXIS! Wake up!" I opened my eyes and respond, "I'm! I'm up!" She sighed in relief.

"So… why did you wake me up for?"

"To see if you were -"

The roar that spread from the distant cut off what Peyton was saying to me, I think it's because it's very loud and disruptive. I couldn't make out what she was saying to me... It was as if the noise were covering up the whole atmosphere of the camp. I yelled back at her and said, "To warn me about that?"

It looked like she was about to open her mouth, but she chose to not to speak. So, instead of talking, she nodded as a reply to my question. Then, Peyton came up to me and whispered into my ears, "Do you have any idea what is happening?"

"Nope, no clue..." I said as I shook my head. I was squinting my eyes for no apparent reason, maybe I was just afraid that something nasty might fly towards my face. (You never know, it might.) "Hmm... want to see if we could figure out what's going on?"

Peyton frowned and looked at me in confusion. I sat down, took the oars, and quickly paddled us to the dock where the canoe boats are normally kept. When I reached the dock however, a screeching sound vibrated throughout the whole camp. Or at least, that's what I thought it did. The vibration made me unstable. Without thinking, I grabbed Peyton and ran towards The Big House. The screeching sound is still in session, I think I'm starting to go deaf… Anyways, when I got there, the windows were shattered. I opened the door slightly and looked into The Big House. There's a figure behind the desk. My instinct told me to duck, in case the figure throws something at me directly. Instead of doing that however, I grabbed a stick, used it for support for me to swing in the Big House. I heard Peyton trying to tell me to come out but I sort of tuned her out. I bent down and stayed low, hoping that the figure or creature wouldn't see me. Considering that nothing come flying toward me yet, the entity didn't spot me. The closer I got, the more I want to discover what the being might be. I tip toed towards the side of the desk. I heard rustling sounds - it was as if the being was in a hurry, but did not want to make much of a scene. Well, Mr. In-A-Hurry isn't doing such a good job with keeping a low profile if he already made it so the whole camp was able to hear the sound he caused… somehow.

Since I wasn't sure what the entity might be or do, I used my powers and accidentally turned all the possible lights on. The room got blazing bright, and it made my eyes squint. I'm guessing the other people who are present are also doing the same. The light was so bright, I almost couldn't see anything. Slowly, I stood up and tried to open my eyes. Unexpectedly, Mr. In-A-Hurry basically slammed itself at me just when I was trying to get up. His sudden attack made me unstable which then led me falling on the ground. I tried to break free but I was struggling to do so. Just before I thought I couldn't break loose, someone made it so that Mr. In-A-Hurry went flying across the room. Thank you...whoever you are! The bad thing is, while Mr. In-A-Hurry was flying towards the other side of the room, he threw several knives without even paying attention where he was aiming at. One of the knives hit my arm and the blade sliced my skin. I folded my lips when I felt it. I guess I didn't want to show that Mr. In-A-Hurry scared me. The lights in the room dimmed a bit as I got weaker. The good thing is, my eyes stopped squinting. Without alerting me, Peyton grabbed me and ran out of The Big House. She lead me back to the boat and as I got on the boat, I found my eyes getting heavier and heavier. The next thing I remember was the sight of Peyton's long, blonde and golden hair.


	2. Part 2 - Before Camp

Before residing at camp, I lived with my mom but every so often with my relatives. I grew up in Denver, Colorado and stayed in a two bedroom apartment with my mom. She's always nice and friendly, however sometimes she can be very distant from me and the world. I think it's because occasionally, she tends to sink in her thoughts and be in her own little bubble. It can be hard to pull her out of that state at times.

My two bedroom apartment is really simple. There is a place right in front of the door for you to put your shoes on. There's a little closet room right by it, we store any game boards or decorations in there, besides from some of our shoes of course. In the living room, there's a couch where you can sit and watch TV, but it's also a good place for napping. Next to the couch, there's a special table for the computer that my mom and I uses. If you walk down further back, there's a kitchen. One thing that my mom and I do when she isn't too busy, she would share recipes with me and we would try making it. Even though it might not always turn out the way we thought it would be, it's always fun making them. If you walk towards the other direction (like instead of walking towards the sofa, you walk to the other hallway), you'll see our rooms. The one on the right is my room, and the one on the left is my mother's. The restroom is diagonal from the two bedrooms. My room is painted with medium purple and is decorated with stars. I have some stars hanging from the ceilings and I have a section that's dedicated just for stars. If I find any kind or form of star is worth saving or keeping, I would! I know, it's sort of an obsession, but I call it keeping a collection.

My mother is a musician and a vocalist. Although she can play a variety of instruments, she mostly plays the piano and the violin. One thing that I noticed was that she was always smiling whenever she's playing. Sometimes she would close her eyes, nod and tap her feet. I usually join in with her when she does that. Without a doubt, I think it's obvious that music or playing music brings joy to her. I guess that's why it brings joy to me too! I remember she told me that not only she likes to play instruments, she also like the way that the music make others feel. Whenever I got home from school, I would always run to find her and ask if she can give me lessons. At times, she would allow me to play with her students, but other times she would just teach me individually.

Usually, when my mother is gone, or is at her students' houses, I would look through things in the apartment. The only reason that I did that was because I thought maybe I could find something- anything that has to do with my father. Every so often, I would still try to dig out more info about him but mom just kept repeating the same things, like, "He's away, and probably won't come back." Knowing that, I still can't bring myself to give up hope that I can cross paths with him someday in the future. Eventually, I stopped asking her and started looking for answers by myself. I decided to look through things in the apartment as a starting point. After a while, I finally found something. It was her journal that she kept when she was in college. I know it wasn't entirely right to read it because it was filled with her personal thoughts, but that didn't stop me because I was determined to know something, anything that has to do with my father.

In her journal, she basically recorded her life story. During the time period, I simply just wanted to find out more about my father, however I did discover other interesting things about my mom as well. I was flipping through it and I stopped at around ¾ of the journal. It says:

"As I was going back to my dorm, I sensed someone looking at me… It can't be, I thought to myself. I turned and looked around. Him, it was him…the guy that have a twisted personality. I sighed and kept walking. One of my friends told me he stole a bunch of wooden materials from one of the teachers. He also asked one of his classmates if they could help him look for all the He's probably going to make some random remark about random things that'll get me confused again. Then, surprisingly, he walked up to me. I tried to go around him, but he stopped me before I can walk any further. I bring my head up and looked at him in the eyes.

"What?" I said.

He was smirking. "Why do you seem so irritated?"

I sighed before answering, "Listen Levant, I really need to go back to my dorm. I am doing research on a very important assignment that I cannot-"

He cut me and said, "-and you cannot talk to me just for a few minutes? Aw, come on Angela!"

"Fine, you have five minutes, starting now. The clock is ticking!" I said with an impatience attitude.

Surprisingly, we sort of hit it off. Levant and I started to talk about schoolwork and what our interests were. Eventually, we had discussions about what we want to do as a future career. I actually started to think of him as a friend."

That was just the beginning of it. I wanted to read more but then I heard the door slam. That completely took me by surprise which caused me to jump backwards. Some things fell down from the shelf above me. My mom must have heard the noise that the items made because she ran in as if she was expecting to see a kidnapper who is just about to jump out of the window with me. I climbed in her bed as fast as I can and pretend to be doing my homework. When she entered the room, she rushed by my side and smiled as she's playing with my hair.

"I thought you were hurt Lexi! Thank goodness you're not," she said as she's sighing.

I laughed lightly and hugged her, "Don't worry mom, I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

"Oh I see, got it. Well, be more careful next time!"

I beamed at her and nodded. "I will, don't worry."

After informing her that I was completely fine, she walked out and started making dinner. I wanted to keep the journal with me but she might notice that it's gone so I put it back to where I originally found it.

A couple of months later, my mom told me that she wanted to take a break from being a music teacher after being one for a such a long time. She said she wanted to travel. She wanted to see how other parts of the world is like. She also wanted to see if by any chance she can reunite with my father again. I did not want to let her to go but... after thinking about it, I came to realize that she deserves a break, I mean, everyone deserves one once in a while. So even though I really didn't want her to go but I didn't argued with her as much as I wanted to.

During the time she was gone, for the first part, I went to live with my aunt in York, Nebraska for about two months. To be honest, thinking back, it was my favorite two months. We lived in a motel (since she doesn't live in one place for a long time) and I still bear in mind that we had a lot of fun there. My aunt Kathy is a writer and an artist. Besides from writing, she also draws in her stories. I remember that I would read them, look at them, and admire them before going to sleep. When she's not too busy, she would take me to carnivals and water parks. Thinking back, I recalled encountering with some creatures several times. The thing was, the amount of time that happened wasn't very often. Not that I'm complaining, but it's that's not a thing that happens very commonly.

Of course, the fun had to end. After the two months that I spent with my aunt, I went to live with my uncle in Rome. I didn't stay there for long, because I had to go back to school, and plus….I'm half Greek. Greeks aren't exactly….welcome there...at least, that's what I'm guessing. You see, I discovered multiple things from my mother's journal. It's packed with secrets that she didn't reveal to me. I am a bit upset at her for not letting me know, but I understand why she kept it away from me. It would have been too much for me to take in… I know that now.

Ok... let me fill you in about what I uncover from my mother's journal. I found out that my father is Apollo, yes, as in the Greek god, which makes me a demigod. (Demigods are half god and half human.) Apollo is the god of music, poetry, medicine, and archery. Being a demigod also gives you abilities. A while ago when I was hanging out with Taylor, she fell and almost went unconscious. At first, I was in panic so I wasn't calm enough to think clearly. Then, I took a deep breath and go through the options. I can yell for help, but I didn't think that would've solve the problem. Out of the blue, my instinct told me to sing, so that's what I did. Surprisingly, Taylor woke up about less than a minute later. She asked me what we were doing and I told her that we fell and tripped. What I said to her was true; I just didn't tell her the whole story. I think that was the first encounter I had with using my powers.

Anyways, when I lived with my uncle, I ended up only living with him for about a week. I think the reason why I was only there for such a short period of time was because if I stayed for too long, I'll be dead before I knew it. Once, my uncle Dan, took me to a museum (for a fossil examination), I sensed something as I walked past the front door. I wasn't sure if it was good or bad... Maybe I'm being too paranoid... I tried to put those worried thoughts aside and decided to walk further into the museum. Then, I went over to the display boxes and exam what are being shown to the visitors. Then, I heard a voice echoing in my head, it said, Hey, Alexis! Whoever said that startled me. I turned my head and looked around, my eyes were searching desperately for someone, an explanation, anything, because for a moment I thought I was going crazy. There it was again: Alexis! This is just a warning. Leave Rome as soon as possible! You'll attract too many monsters. The only reason that none of them came after you yet was because Apollo protected you with a scent that covered your demigod smell! If you're wondering who this is, it's Blackjack! Don't worry, Mr. D didn't do anything to you…yet. You're not going crazy. Oh, and I'm a horse, whose good friends with Percy Jackson. We might see each other someday. So, like I said, leave as soon as possible! Hearing that warning from Blackjack made me very shock. I mean, who wouldn't be when a random horse managed to communicate with you by speaking into your mind? How did the horse do that anyways? "Calm down…" I told myself. I can dwell on how I am able to connect with a horse later. I took a deep breath and went over the things the horse told me. Then, I went to my uncle and told him that I don't think being in Rome is such a good idea. He asked more questions but I basically just replied with the same statement. He finally gave up and let me go back home. To be honest, I felt bad about not telling my relatives the entire truth. However, telling them that I am a daughter of Apollo isn't really something I think that I can just say when greeting people.

Since I still needed to figure some things out (such as how my powers work and what they might be) that's exactly what I was determined to do. As days went by, I found myself being able to use more and more of my powers. Some of the things I discovered that I could do were, healing others by singing a song, making a candle light up when I read at night, as well as being able to manipulate my school's speaker to make it sound pitchy (or chipmunk-ish). Later on, I became aware of why I was so fast at learning and catching onto music, archery, as well as sports. (Apollo is the god of music and archery, and, usually, his demigod children are good athletes.)

Approximately around last fall, my mother returned and I went back to live with her. We had conversations about her trips and my visits in Rome and York. When winter break came close, she took me to New York as a small vacation. During the vacation, she told me that there was this camp in Long Island where she think would it would be best for me to stay in. She explained that it was a place for demigods to live in. The campers train for defending ourselves, each other, and the camp. I didn't exactly want to leave my life and go to the camp...but then I realized...there was going to be tons of other demigods that are half-bloods as well, like me… I can make actual friends, friends that I don't have to leave behind, friends that I don't have to lie to. So, having to think of all that, I decided to give it a chance. After packing my stuff, my mom drove me to the top of Half-Blood Hill and dropped me off by the entrance. Before leaving, I asked her if I could visit, she smiled and said "Anytime." I gave her one last hug before walking into the camp.


	3. Part 3 - Just the Beginning

Suddenly, I was on the boat again, my eyes blinked open and I got up. I peered around where I am at and recognize that I'm on a boat by myself. I rubbed my head and see a figure coming my way. Oh gods…don't tell me it's the same creature that was in The Big House... The figure's movement startled me and the first thing that came to my mind is to not let it see me. Since there's nowhere to hide, I impulsively, without thinking, jumped into the lake and used the boat as a shield to protect me.

"Alexis? Where in the world did you disappear to? You were just there! Oh gods..."

After hearing the person who's speaking, I identified who the voice belonged to. It belonged to Peyton! That's right! I was with her before falling asleep! I swim ashore and run up to her.

"Peyton, I'm alright!"

She turned around sighed in relief. "Alexis! Thank gods... I was so worried… and why are you...I'm guessing you jumped into the lake?"

I laughed lightly and replied, "Oh, um... yeah. I was alerted."

"Why?"

"I thought you were the figure that was in The Big House..."

She nodded and said, "Ah...I see."

"Did you see who or what it was?"

She shook her head and answered, "No... sorry. I'm sure someone saw it though. We'll find out who or what it is soon, don't worry. Right now, let's just worry about getting you cleaned up!"

I said, "Ok, let's go!"

Peyton helped me get refreshed again. I checked my activity schedule and head towards where my next activity is located. After doing Archery and Sword-Fighting, we have free time. Peyton approached behind me, tapped my left shoulder and said, "Don't get startled and jump into the lake again!" I laughed and tell her "I won't!" I put my hands on my waist and scanned around the area. I was considering to go to the Hermes cabin to welcome the newbies...but I went back to my cabin instead. I want to record the events that occurred today, so I got out my journal and flipped to a new page. My golden-ish/yellow-ish desk is filled with writing and coloring utensils spread all around. The desk is leaning against the wall, diagonal from a window. The tip of the four legs are protected with green gulf balls (knowing me, if the balls weren't there, the desk might have collapsed multiple times already).The sun light shined through the window. Before filling the pages, I thought about the things that I encountered since I arrived at camp, like all the nightly bone-fires. Like playing truth or dare, like things happening during daily activities as well as the quests that we go on and all the unexpected attacks from inside and outside of camp, not to mention the drama... I got up from the chair and walked towards the window. I sighed and gazed at the view of the sunset. Life can be unpredictable, especially when you're a demigod!


End file.
